Programming: Volkswagen’s new software strategy

Good morning dear readers,

The fact that a car boss can now be fired because some software doesn’t work must seem like a personal insult to real car people: Isn’t software what nerdy computer scientists stuff into cars after the engineers have finished their development work?

Long ago. The program code that controls the functions in the car is now the actual core product. The new Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume takes this fact into account in his software strategy. He intends to present them to the supervisory board on December 15. The Handelsblatt has already learned the key points in advance from corporate circles:

1. In the future, the group should first define the range of functions and schedule for the vehicle software and then derive the individual car models and their market launch from them – no longer the other way around.

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2. The development of a self-driving car on levels 4 and 5 of autonomous driving, in which the car drives largely independently, will in future be taken over by the sister company VW Commercial Vehicles instead of Audi.

3. Because the new Volkswagen software platform is not ready for use by 2026 as planned, the existing software architectures 1.1 and 1.2 are to be further developed and kept competitive until the end of the decade.

Blume’s predecessor, Herbert Diess, lost his job mainly because of the software chaos at Volkswagen. Blume is still benefiting from the fact that his predecessor is blamed for the mistakes – but the newcomer will not have this privilege for long.

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Breakdowns like the newly launched “ID.Buzz” electric bulli it would be better for VW to stop doing this in the future. The testers from the magazine “Auto, Motor und Sport” criticized the test car, which cost at least 81,000 euros: “The infotainment system is lame and sluggish”. The service was “a horror”.

Freely adapted from Bill Clinton: It’s the software, fool!

The weekend brought an important points win for the western alliance against Russia: The cartel of oil exporting countries, called Opec plus, will maintain its production volume of around 41.9 million barrels per day, which was valid until the end of December, in the new year.

With this announcement, the Opec-plus alliance is avoiding a new dispute with the USA. The October decision to cut supply by two million barrels a day sparked outrage, particularly in Washington. A White House spokeswoman said at the time: “It is clear that Opec plus is allied with Russia.” After Saudi Arabia, Russia is the most influential member of the Opec plus alliance.

The result of the virtual Opec plus meeting Sunday was also eagerly awaited because the seven largest industrialized countries (G7) agreed on a price cap for Russian oil of 60 dollars per barrel (around 159 liters), which will come into force today. With the price cap, for example, shipping companies and insurance companies from G7 countries are prohibited from doing business with Russian oil if the price of the goods is above the upper limit. The price cap is an addition to the partial import ban on Russian oil in Europe.

Further production cuts would have been beneficial for Russia because they would have increased the cost of the sanctions policy for the G7 countries.

Many commentators question the effectiveness of the price cap. My Brussels colleague Christoph Herwartz, on the other hand, is cautiously optimistic that the upper limit of $60 will actually hurt Putin.

Just a tactic to buy time – or a signal of willingness to change? The protests in Iran seem to be leading to the regime’s first concessions. The hated vice police may have been disbanded. At least that’s what the Iranian media reported on Sunday, citing the country’s Attorney General.

The vice police were responsible for observing women’s dress codes – and had triggered the protests: in mid-September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested because a few strands of hair are said to have stuck out from under her headscarf. Amini died a few days later in the custody of the vice squad.

The Shargh newspaper quoted Attorney General Mohammed Jafar Montaseri as saying: “The vice squad has been disbanded, but the judiciary will continue to deal with this societal challenge.”

There were no further details about the alleged dissolution. In a report by the Iranian news agency Isna on Friday, Montaseri was also quoted as saying that the government is reviewing the requirement for women to wear a headscarf. So far there has been no confirmation of the statement.

Demonstrator in Germany: According to the Iranian Attorney General, the Iranian moral police will be dissolved.

(Photo: IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer)

Europe is struggling to come up with an appropriate response to US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).. The legislative package from Washington promises companies billions in aid for investments in green technology – but only if it is produced in North America.

On Sunday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, explained for the first time what she thinks an appropriate reaction by the Europeans could look like.

Your plan sounds one thing above all: expensive.

The CDU politician proposes setting up a “sovereignty fund” – a new program for joint EU bonds that could be used to finance climate-friendly industrial projects in Europe. Because: “The new self-confident industrial policy of our competitors requires a structural answer.”

Von der Leyen rejected the idea of ​​reacting to the protectionist climate policy of the USA with a complaint before the World Trade Organization WTO, also in order not to endanger cooperation in the Ukraine war. Von der Leyen: “That’s not in our interest.”

A suggestion: Before the EU incurs new debt for its “sovereignty fund” Maybe we should check what the other programs worth billions with which the EU wants to promote investment, innovation and sustainability have actually achieved.

  • For example, what specific new products do we have to thank for the “Important Projects of Common European Interest” (IPCEI), with which the EU wants to bring “groundbreaking technologies from the laboratory to their first industrial application”?
  • What growth impulses has the €750 billion Corona recovery fund, which is also intended to promote green investments, among other things, brought about so far?
  • Where is the honest analysis of what the “EU Infrastructure Investment Plan” really achieved, better known as the “Juncker Plan”?

The standard of assessment should not be that the aid has flowed properly into any projects. But that the programs trigger more additional economic output than they cost themselves. Only then can they make economic sense.

I wish you a day that brings you much more than it costs you.

Her

Christian Rickens

Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt

Morning Briefing: Alexa

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